Mukuru has launched a Visa-branded card in Botswana that draws directly on its mobile wallet, allowing customers to spend at any Visa merchant without a bank account.
The financial services company announced the Companion Card from Gaborone, Botswana on 19 August 2026. It is linked to the existing Mukuru Wallet, so there is no transfer step before a purchase, and it works across all mobile networks.
The gap the card is aimed at
Botswana has roughly 4.21 million mobile connections in a population of 2.54 million, a penetration rate of about 166%. On Mukuru’s figures, 38% of adults remain without a bank account.
That combination is the point. Connectivity is not the constraint in Botswana and has not been for some time. What is missing is the account layer that turns a phone into something a merchant will accept payments from, and the card is an attempt to bridge that gap without waiting for banks to reach those customers.
Mukuru is registered in Botswana as an Electronic Payment Service Provider, a licence category that allows a non-bank to hold and transfer customer funds.
Why a card, and not just the wallet
A plastic card is a conservative instrument for a company positioning itself against traditional banking. It is also the pragmatic one. Card acceptance already exists at the tills, so a wallet that issues one inherits every Visa merchant rather than having to persuade shops to adopt a new payment method.
The trade is that spending now runs over Visa’s rails and carries their economics, rather than over domestic mobile-money interoperability.
“Our customers already trust the Mukuru Wallet to manage their money. The Companion Card gives them a new, practical way to use it,” said Thembani Moyo, Country Manager for Mukuru Botswana.
Transactions are protected by a customer PIN, online purchases use Visa’s 3D Secure authentication, and a lost card can be blocked from the phone. Access Bank is named as a supporting partner, with Shathiso Choto, its Head of Retail Banking, framing the launch as an expansion of access to regulated financial services.
Botswana as a market
Botswana attracts less coverage than Nigeria, Kenya or South Africa, but it has been steadily wired. Orange Botswana, EcoCash and TransferTo linked Botswana and Zimbabwe with real-time mobile payments with Zimbabwe, and Liquid extended cloud and cybersecurity services into the country more recently.
Mukuru has not said how many wallet customers it has in Botswana, what the card costs to hold or use, or how many merchants it expects to reach. Those figures decide whether this closes the gap the company describes or simply gives existing customers another way to spend.
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